“Here come the JetsLike a bat out of hell —Someone gets in our waySomeone don’t feel so well.”— “West Side Story”

In coach Rex Ryan, the football Jets also have a Riff, their very own New York gang leader, fearless, brash, effusive, funny-serious, with dukes up, but always cool and ready protect his territory. Can’t say I’d want to see him dance, but this guy is great. Rex Ryan, you are a madman. I want to party with you, cowboy. I want to be your wingman.

That refreshing breath of fresh air wafting into Qualcomm Stadium tomorrow afternoon will be supplied by Ryan, the NFL’s Larry David, whose different, ground-breaking one-man show has taken Broadway by the tonsils. Here is the perfect vehicle for a great, eclectic town that knows a good show when it sees one.

You either like the Jets’ rookie head coach or you don’t, and he doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. But what’s not to like? The man who has led his team into the divisional playoff match against the Chargers here tomorrow somehow gets mixed media reviews, but what do we know?

We complain when we have to deal with the Bill Belichicks of the NFL, the clams, the spies. How can we complain when Ryan, completely unique, opens his mouth and says on a daily basis what most timid coaches who see bulletin board material under every syllable would consider blasphemous?

Ryan does not provide bulletin board material. He provides relief. This guy shouldn’t be an acquired taste. He should just be acquired.

Nor is he a habitual trash-talker. Every so often he may go off — as when he said he didn’t take the job in New York to kiss “Bill Belichick’s rings” — but what he does is P.T. Barnum his team. He promotes it. Sells it. Praises it. And his guys buy it.

Believing you should win every game, should be favored to win the Super Bowl, that you’re better than everyone else, is what all coaches may think or hope, but hardly what they all say. Ryan says it — not only in the locker room, but behind the podium. He’s even been moved to tears.

Ryan has posted calendars in the Jets’ facility with the dates remaining on the playoff schedule, including the Super Bowl, and the championship parade down New York’s Canyon of Heroes. This guy is a gas.

“The Super Bowl on most teams is that elephant in the room,” Jets safety Jim Leonhard says. “Don’t mention it. Don’t think about it. Everybody knows it’s there. We’re not afraid to talk about what everybody is playing for now.”

Ryan admires Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, for example, but when informed Rivers really hasn’t had a bad game all season, he says: “It’s the due factor. He’s due, right? Surely to goodness, anybody, you can’t play the whole season and not have a bad day. So I feel good about that.”

After a Dec. 20 loss to the Falcons, he declared: “This is tough, because we’re obviously out of the playoffs. We thought we had a great chance to make the playoffs. This is hugely disappointing.”